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The overall quality of the United States’ 2015 corn crop was good, with 94 percent of corn samples samples rated at quality grade No. 2 or better in the U.S. Grains Council’s newly-released 2015/2016 Corn Harvest Quality Report. USGC, of which the National Corn Growers Association is a founding member, works collaboratively with NCGA to build demand for U.S. corn.

“This is the fifth year of releasing our corn quality reports,” said USGC Chairman Alan Tiemann. “Our objective in compiling and publishing this unique information is to arm our customers with the data they need to make good purchasing decisions – and take advantage of the excellent U.S. crops now available to them.”

According to the corn quality report, the 2015 U.S. crop is entering marketing channels with the following key characteristics:

Average test weight within the range for No. 1 grade corn, indicating good kernel filling and maturation.

Low levels of broken corn and foreign material, with 98 percent within the range for No. 2 grade corn, indicating little cleaning will be required.

Low levels of total damage, with 96.1 percent within the range for U.S. No. 2 grade.

No observed heat damage.

Average elevator moisture of 15.7 percent, which will decrease the potential for stress cracking.

100 percent of the corn samples tested below the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) action level for mycotoxins.

“Our customers look forward to this information on an annual basis, and we are pleased to be able to offer it to them in a way that benefits their businesses,” Tiemann said. “We’ve had a lot of success with building relationships with overseas buyers and end-users by presenting the findings of the corn quality reports.”

The corn report is based on 620 yellow commodity corn samples taken from defined areas within 12 of the top corn-producing and exporting states, including Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Inbound samples were collected from local grain elevators to observe quality at the point of origin and to provide representative information about the variability of quality characteristics across geographic regions.

The corn samples were tested at the Illinois Crop Improvement Association’s Identity Preserved Grain Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois, in accordance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Federal Grain Inspection Service’s Grain Inspection Handbook. This follows the methodology that was developed for USGC’s 2011/2012 Corn Harvest Quality Report and that has been used in each subsequent year’s follow-up study.

Click here to view a PDF of the 2015/2016 Corn Harvest Quality Report.